“Road Safety Should Be Everybody’s Concern”

RegionsChristopher JATOR | 08-02-2018 04:54

Pamela Ayuketah, Littoral Delegate of Transport.

What economic evaluation do you make of the recent rise in road accidents?

When we have accidents it is terrible and disheartening for families who lose their loved ones and also a great loss to the country’s economy as it constitutes reduction in the labour force. Internal and external trades are greatly perturbed.

What are the probable causes of these accidents?

Firstly, you should know that the human factor contributes seventy per cent, the road infrastructure twenty per cent and the technical state of the vehicle ten per cent. As for the human factor, most of the drivers are not prudent enough. They don’t respect their rest hours. The proprietors of the travel agencies don’t follow up the drivers to make sure they respect this aspect. On the contrary, they tend to act abusively by obliging them do many to and fro trips, which normally leads to tiredness and nervousness. Secondly, the passengers have their own share of the blame. Most of them incite drivers to go on excessive speed and they don’t denounce when drivers pick up passengers along the highway. Some even go to the extent of quarrelling with drivers and this can possibly distract them. Thirdly, inhabitants along the highway are not cautious. The debris they throw on the highway can lead to accident and degradation.
As for the state of road, we all notice that there are vast construction and rehabilitation projects all over Cameroon, and we can see clearly that we won’t have problems in this aspect in the years ahead. For vehicles, the Ministry of Transport will not cease to sensitise all vehicle owners to make sure they go through the road worthy centres to get their vehicles checked before they ply the highway.

What is the administration doing to reduce the occurrence of road accidents?

Despite maximum efforts made by the Ministry of Transport to curb road accidents, we are not completely free from this germ. Much is still being done in the form of sensitizing road users per their various responsibilities. Road safety should be everybody’s concern.